Authors: Stolen Ecstasy
Hannah Howell (7 page)
“Maybe, but no it is.”
“Didn’t feel like no to me.”
She blushed. “My common sense has returned.”
“Wonderful.”
When he moved away, she quickly redid her loosened clothing. “Some day I might extricate myself from this mess and return to the lawful world, or what passes for it,” she muttered. “Consorting with a bank robber will hardly redeem me to society.”
“And, of course, people will never think that, after weeks of riding with five outlaws, you never consorted with any of them—willingly or otherwise.”
The truth of that struck home with such force that she nearly gasped. People generally did think the worst. It was one of the more appalling aspects of human nature that she had discovered. One thing they had stressed at her school was how dangerous it was to be alone with a man, how quickly and completely it could blacken a woman’s name, whether she had erred or not.
Turning on her side with her back to him, she tried to deny the truth of his cool pronouncement. It was impossible. She had been condemned the moment she had ridden off with him.
“I’ll simply tell them the truth,” she said, thinking out loud.
He rolled his eyes and wondered if the girl was truly that naive. “The way you did when they accused you of being part of the robbery?”
“Oh, shut up.” She closed her eyes and prayed she would fall asleep before she gave in to the urge to throttle him.
Chapter Five
I
T WAS GETTING WORSE
, L
EANNE THOUGHT DISPIRITEDLY
as she aimlessly poked at the ashes of the campfire. Last night she had barely grasped sanity in time to halt Hunter’s lovemaking. One more minute and it would have been too late to turn back.
T WAS GETTING WORSE
, L
EANNE THOUGHT DISPIRITEDLY
as she aimlessly poked at the ashes of the campfire. Last night she had barely grasped sanity in time to halt Hunter’s lovemaking. One more minute and it would have been too late to turn back.
She ached to say yes. Common sense, however, told her to say a resounding no. If she gave herself to a man, it should be out of love, not lust. There should also be at least the promise of some future together. Hunter could not offer any even if he wanted to.
There was no choice left. She had to get away from the man. Her no was too weak to last all the way to Mexico. She did not even feel confident it would last one more night.
Gazing at the mountains, she sighed. They looked very far away, very forbidding, but O‘Malley was up there. If she could reach him, he would help her clear her name. And if any bounty hunters found her there before she was declared innocent, she could simply give herself up, thereby lessening the risk to O’Malley.
Glancing toward Jed and Charlie, she grimaced. She was going to feel bad about taking advantage of their trust and thickheadedness, but she would do it. Despite Hunter’s orders that she not be left with only those two for guards, Tom and Luke had disappeared again. However, they could well return at any time, as could Hunter, so she had to move quickly.
Keeping a close watch on Jed and Charlie, she stuffed some supplies and a canteen into a clean blanket, then bundled it up. It was not much, but she did not dare take more. A large bundle would be noticeable even to her lackadaisical guards. Clutching the blanket, she started towards the creek.
“Where’re you going?”
“To have a bath, Charles.” She did not hesitate in her advance towards the creek.
“Now, I ain’t sure you oughta be doing that. We’re supposed to keep an eye on you.”
She paused to give him a haughty look. “You are not watching me take a bath.”
Charlie blushed, as did Jed, and mumbled, “No, course we ain’t. But Hunter said . . .”
“Aw, let her go, Charlie. Hell, where can she run to?”
“I reckon. Just don’t take too long or I might have to come looking for you.”
The fact that Charlie’s face was bright red with embarrassment beneath his brown, scraggly beard made her confident the threat was an empty one. Nevertheless, she moved quickly. As soon as she was out of their sight she put the blanket down and packed what little she had more securely and conveniently. She heartily wished she could have stolen one of the horses, but there was no way she could do that without Charlie and Jed seeing her. Hefting her makeshift pack over her shoulder she started towards the mountains at an easy jog, hoping to cover as much distance as possible before her absence was noted.
There was a reluctance within her that she tried hard to fight. Part of her did not really want to leave Hunter, not even to save herself from an obviously ill-fated love affair. She told herself not to be an idiot and kept on moving, but it was not advice she took very easily.
Another thing weighting her steps was the knowledge that the land she must traverse to get to O’Malley was not exactly hospitable. There were snakes—both the kind that walked and the kind that crawled. There were also Indians.
Hunter frowned as he dismounted and looked around the campsite. Charlie and Jed were idly playing cards. Luke and Tom were starting up a campfire. It all looked peaceful, but Leanne was nowhere to be seen. Not pausing to see to his mount, he strode towards Jed and Charlie.
“Where’s Leanne?”
“She went to take a bath.”
“When, Charlie?”
Charlie looked at Jed, his face revealing his growing consternation. “Do you recall, Jed?”
“Nope. Can’t say I do.”
Swearing viciously, Hunter raced to the creek. He was not surprised to find no one there. Just to be certain, he looked around very carefully, but there was no sign she had even gone near the creek. As he headed back to camp, he searched for signs of her trail. He found footprints in the soft earth just out of sight of camp. The trail led straight for the mountains. Cursing her foolishness as well as the dimwittedness of Charlie and Jed, he raced back to camp. It would be dark soon. That left him little time to find her.
“She gone?” Charlie asked as he and Jed hurried over to where Hunter was mounting his horse.
“Yeah, she’s gone.”
“Good riddance, I say.”
“No one asked for your opinion, Luke.”
“That girl’s been trouble since she stumbled into the bank, Hunter, and you know it.”
“Leaving her out there looking for someone to talk to won’t make her any less trouble.”
“The reason she prob’ly bolted is ’cause you keep threatening to shoot her,” Charlie growled as he and Jed hurried to saddle their horses. “We’ll help you look for the kid, Hunter. She shouldn’t oughta be out there alone, on foot. Could get hurt.”
For just a moment Hunter mused angrily that an injury or two might knock some sense into the girl. It was a thought that passed quickly. There were too many dangers she could run into, the sort that got a person killed. The mere thought of such a thing happening to Leanne tied his stomach into knots and he cursed her even as he started out to look for her.
He did not want to feel this way. Not about her. Not about anyone. And especially not now. He was already neck deep in trouble and in dangerous intrigue; to get emotionally entangled with a woman would be all he needed to submerge him.
There was also the fact that he did not like feeling as he did. He disliked worrying about where. she was and what might be happening to her. Only once had he let a woman touch his emotions. He thought he’d learned his lesson but, clearly, he hadn’t learned it well enough.
“Don’t worry, Hunter. She ain’t been gone all that long. Couldn’t’ve gotten into that much trouble.”
“I’m not worried, Charlie,” Hunter lied, “just furious. I’m going to strangle her when we find her.”
Leanne used Hunter’s handkerchief to wipe the sweat from her face. She had to slow her pace or collapse. All she could do was hope she had covered enough ground to make a search for her more trouble than it was worth.
Stuffing the handkerchief back into her pants pocket, she continued on her way. She mentally argued the wisdom of finding a place to camp for the night. Afraid someone might be following, she wanted to keep moving as long as her body could endure. However, traveling at night was dangerous in and of itself.
A deep cry dragged her from her inner debate. She looked up from the rough ground she had been watching so carefully and cursed. So involved had she been in deciding whether to rest or not, she had come within yards of a small group of Indians. They looked as surprised to see her as she was to see them. She doubted, however, that they felt the depth of fear and dismay that she did:
A voice in her head screamed for her to run, but her feet seemed rooted to the ground. As she struggled to break shock’s immobilizing grip, she noticed two things about the six nearly naked men before her. They were not moving too fast or too gracefully. And, judging by the bottle one held, they had been drinking. When one made a lewd gesture, she finally found the strength and wit to move.
Even as she urged her weary body into a run, she heard the Indians move to give chase. They seemed to be having some difficulty, but she did not slow her pace. They might be drunk, but they had horses and she did not.
She suddenly realized that she was running straight back to the outlaw camp and Hunter. Heading for the foothills of the mountains would have been wiser. There was cover in that direction, places to hide. Now all she could do was run and pray that the Indians were too drunk to get their horses under control. The sound of hoofbeats behind her told her it was already too late for that prayer to be answered.
For a moment the shouts and whoops of her pursuers added to her terror. Then she grew angry. They saw this chase as some sort of game. She was running for her very life, and they found it amusing. She began to pray that Hunter was out looking for her, that he would soon appear, and that he would shoot every one of the drunken lechers chasing her.
“Hey, hear that, Hunter?”
“I do, Charlie, and I have the feeling I know who’s smack in the middle of that ruckus.”
Even as he spoke, he spurred his horse to a gallop. He recognized Leanne the moment her slight, running figure came into view. Even though the sounds he heard had warned him, the sight of the half-dozen Indians chasing her caused his heart to skip a beat. Bending low over his horse’s neck, he urged his mount to its greatest speed.
As he drew closer, his fear for her eased slightly. The Indians were not gaining on her as swiftly as they should have been. They seemed to be doing an extremely poor job of riding her down. He doubted he had ever seen Indians handle their mounts with such a lack of skill. The nearer he got, the surer he was that the Indians were not incompetent, they were just drunk.
“Fire a few shots over their heads, Charlie.”
“Over their heads?”
“Yep. I want to try and chase them off if I can. They’re drunk.”
When Charlie and Jed obeyed his order, the results almost made Hunter laugh. Frightened by the sounds of gunfire, each horse went its own way. The six Indians went in six different directions as they struggled to gain control of their startled mounts. One fell off, staggered to his feet, and awkwardly ran after his horse.
Halting next to Leanne, who stood panting, watching her inept attackers try to regroup, Hunter grabbed her by the arm. Without a word, he yanked her up behind him. As soon as she had wrapped her arms around his waist, he headed back to camp at a gallop, Charlie and Jed quickly falling in behind him.
When they returned to camp, he decided they should move to a more defendable position. He could not be sure just how drunk the Indians had been, nor how quickly they would sober up. Sober and suffering from the effects of drinking too much, they might decide to put right their shameful routing and reclaim the prize they had lost.
“Don’t see why we’re running from a half dozen Injuns,” Luke complained, even as he joined the others in breaking camp.
“That half-dozen could become a lot more.” Hunter kicked out the fire with more vigor than necessary.
“What the hell was she doing out there anyways?”
“She clearly has a desire to be rid of our charming company.” Hunter barely glanced at Leanne as he tied his bedroll on the back of his mount.
“Well, if you’d let me shoot her—”
“Shut up, Luke.”
“I—” Leanne began in her own defense but she fell silent when Hunter’s furious gaze rested on her.
“It would be very wise if you kept that pretty mouth shut for a while,” he said, his voice hard and cold.
Leanne sat still and quiet on Hunter’s horse as the men finished packing up. When Hunter remounted, she cautiously put her arms around him and sighed. He was furious. She could feel it in every taut inch of his frame. He tensed his body away from hers as they rode, but when she finally let go, he grabbed her wrists and yanked her back.
“I don’t know what you’re so testy about,” she snapped.
“Don’t you?”
“I can only assume it’s because I tried to escape.”
“What a clever girl.”
“I had every right to.”
“Another vain attempt to clear your name?”
“It could work.”
“And you could end up earning someone five hundred dollars.”
She pressed her lips together, forcing herself to shut up. She didn’t want to reveal what had really sent her running for the hills. She did not want him to know how close he was to succeeding in his seduction.
By the time they reached a suitable camping place, it was dark. Hunter was treating Leanne like an extra saddlebag, and she was on the point of tears. She sat down by a large rock to stare blindly at the men as they saw to the horses and set up camp.
Other books
Wynne's War by Aaron Gwyn
An Unlikely Duchess by Mary Balogh
The Lost Sheenan's Bride (Taming of the Sheenans Book 6) by Jane Porter
Carried Home by Heather Manning
Giving The Billionaire Curves (BBW, billionaire breeding erotica) by Feurouge, Roxie
Flight of Aquavit by Anthony Bidulka
The Babe and the Baron by Carola Dunn
Winterland Destiny by Jaci Burton
Gives Light(Gives Light Series) by Rose Christo
Fearless (Pier 70 #2) by Nicole Edwards